Santa Rosa County Website

Extension Horticulture Section

Date: July 2, 2001

For: Immediate Release

By: Daniel E. Mullins

Extension Horticulture Agent

Santa Rosa County

Tomato Growing Season Ending – Now What?

Late July sees tomato harvest ending in gardens along the northern Gulf Coast. The reason that this happens is related to temperature. This is a crop that, for purposes of pollination and fruit set, is very sensitive. Night temperatures in particular, control the amount of fruiting. Once summer nights creep near the mid-seventies pollination slows down or ceases.

There are of course, a few exceptions. Some of the new “hot set” varieties might fruit somewhat longer than the standard types. The small fruited, or cherry, tomatoes continue fruiting to some degree throughout the summer and Chelsea, yielding an intermediate sized fruit, bears long into the summer.

Plants that have stopped producing should be removed from the garden – roots and all. Though tomatoes are tropical perennials that would begin setting fruit again when cool nights arrive in the fall, keeping plants healthy throughout the remainder of the summer is usually not feasible. Summer rains and high temperatures dictate the need for intensive fungal leaf and stem blight control measures.

Try Fall Tomatoes

During some years our unique weather allows for a second crop of tomatoes. The keys to growing a fall crop include timing and the availability of healthy plants.

Healthy transplants should be established in the garden during late July or early August. This means locating a source of plants or planting seeds in containers and growing seedlings until the appropriate transplanting time.

The goal is to have vigorous, healthy plants growing and flowering in the garden by September, when nights cool down so that pollination can occur.

Pressure from pests such as blights and insects is greater during late summer, but the payoff can be great. The length of time that fall tomatoes bear depends upon how soon, or late, cold weather arrives. Over the past ten years, I have seen one frost as early as the third week of October that ended the tomato season. On the other hand, there have been a couple of winters that were mild enough that gardeners picked fruit until the holidays. Home grown tomatoes until Christmas – what a pleasant thought!

Note: With the exception of time of planting, growing fall tomatoes is very similar to growing them in the spring. Recommended cultural practices are included in previous articles found in this section.